Lead poisoning as possible cause of deaths at the Swedish House at Kapp Thordsen, Spitsbergen, winter 1872-3.
other · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 19965937.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1136/bmj.b5038 and PMC identifier 2789173.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC.
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Abstract
To investigate cause of death in 17 sealers who died in the Swedish house in Kapp Thordsen, Spitsbergen, during the winter of 1872-3. Analysis of skeletal samples from one sealer's grave. Field trip to Spitsbergen to exhume skeletal remains. One of 17 sailors who died in 1872-3. No objective signs of scurvy were found. The concentration of lead in the bone samples was 102.05 microg/g. The high concentrations of lead indicate that this man died from lead poisoning, probably from food tins. The absence of macroscopic signs of scurvy supports this theory.
Medical subject headings
- Lead Poisoning
- Naval Medicine
- Occupational Diseases